Latest bipartisan push for immigration reform is driven by self-serving politics: letter to the editor

This letter does not address whether broken U.S. sovereignty laws should be enforced or rewarded. It is about timing and the federal government's priorities.

At a time when millions of U.S. citizens are unemployed and, hopefully, our soldiers are coming home, this president and Congress are planning to add 12 million more individuals to our stagnant job market via immigration reform (IR). They say it is the right thing to do. Yet, they have not done right by us since 1980.

It is not altruism motivating President Barack Obama and Congress to put IR above jobs, education, etc., on their 2013 agenda. It is political survival and the large voting block that Hispanics proved to be in November. The Democrats want to pay their debt, and Republicans want to convert Hispanic voters. Both parties agree it is beneficial for America to have its job market, social services, health care and school system flooded. Surprising, since neither party currently wants to fund these things. Why?

They say it is because our government is bloated, ineffectual and wasteful, not the disdain they feel for their constituents. They are confident that if their constituents own dictionaries they have not used them to look up "government." Government is not a person or place. It is a thing that needs to be run by a group of people -- the president and Congress. Therefore, when congresspeople describe the government in negative terms, they are berating themselves and their actions.

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